MARIETTA Two Parkersburg, W.Va., men remained in the Washington County Jail today on charges stemming from an arson fire Friday that caused major damage on Front Street downtown here, as well as multiple breakings and enterings in the area.

Terley L. Clagg Jr., 41, was charged with one count of aggravated arson and two counts of breaking and entering, and Stephen M. Lemon, 38, was charged with two counts of breaking and entering.

Both men reportedly live at 602 Jameson St. in Parkersburg.

Additional charges are also pending in Belpre as part of an on-going investigation into a breaking and entering in that Washington County community.

According to Marietta Police Sgt. Edward O. Wright, Clagg and Lemon admitted to setting the fire at Mad Hen Primitives on Front Street after they broke into the store early Friday morning.

The fire was reported at 3 a.m. and quickly spread to adjoining buildings that contained the businesses All Pro Nutrition, Marietta Music and Valley Beauty School.

Heavy fire, smoke and water damage was reported to all four businesses.

According to Wright, the chain of events leading up to the arrest of Clagg and Lemon started late Wednesday night or early Thursday when the two men allegedly broke into Antiques and Needful Things, also located on Front Street.

The two men reportedly stole numerous items and transported them to their home in Parkersburg. The next night, the two men allegedly returned to Front Street and broke into Mad Hen Primitives, where they allegedly stole numerous items and a credit card the item that eventually led to their arrest.

Not satisfied with their haul from the two Front Street businesses, Clagg and Lemon reportedly went shopping early Friday (aka Black Friday) for the first of a series of purchases that led to their arrest in Columbus.

They were at the Wal-Mart Gas Co-op at 6:15 a.m. Friday using the credit card and they used it again at 6:50 a.m. when they purchased over $1,000 worth of items from the Sears store here, said Wright.

The items allegedly purchased by Clagg and Lemon included a 32-inch television, DVD home entertainment system, X-Box games, Christmas tree and telephone.

Sears representatives noticed the large purchase and called the owner of the card, which was here (at the fire scene), and asked her if she was using her card, Wright said. That was when we knew we had something, because she was there with us.

Clagg and Lemon reportedly left the Marietta area after making the purchases and traveled to Columbus, stopping along the way at antique stores to make additional purchases with the stolen credit card.

We started to see a pattern involving the antiques, said Wright.

The two men then reportedly used the card at a Sears store in Columbus before going to a restaurant in the area to eat allegedly paying for each purchase with the stolen card.

Later in the evening, they returned to the Sears store to buy a lawn mower and the Sears officials noticed the card was being used again and contacted the owner, said Wright.

She in turn contacted the state fire marshal investigator, who was in Marietta, and he contacted Columbus police. The two men were arrested at the Sears store in Eastland Mall.

Wright said he traveled to Columbus to question Clagg and Lemon, who reportedly confessed to the breakings and enterings. Clagg also allegedly admitted to setting the fire.

After arriving back in Marietta, Wright reportedly traveled to the two mens residence in Parkersburg to recover the allegedly stolen items.

It was almost like a store full of goods inside their home, said Wright.

While at the home, Wright noted a large number of dolls inside the residence and upon returning to the police station, mentioned them to his chief.

I was telling the chief about all these dolls and he said, Wait a minute. Belpre had a breaking and entering where a bunch of dolls were stolen, said Wright. We asked them (Clagg and Lemon) about it and they admitted to breaking into the Belpre store.

Officials then returned to the Parkersburg residence and collected the dolls.

The case remained under investigation by the Marietta and Belpre police departments.